“In a lot of ways I think food is starting to take the place in culture that rock and roll took 30 years ago, in that eating has become incredibly political. And just as the street has always dictated fashions on music and other things, it’s starting to happen that way in food.” —Jonathan Gold, L.A .Weekly Food Critic
A Unique Food Experience.
Summer and fall are the travel times of the year. Children are off from school and Mom and Dad take vacation time. When traveling, check out the street vendors in the cities that you visit.
The economic downturn of 2008 contributed to many trained culinary chefs losing their jobs. Many of these talented people opted to sell their food from trucks. The food network visits the best of this genre on the show Eat Street. Truly amazing chefs create fabulous food and are developing a following of devotees.
Recently, the city of Troy, New York, had a riverfront food fest along the banks of the Hudson River. Over twenty street vendors cooked their specialties. Here is a glimpse of that experience.
Some of the street vendors on the first glorious day of spring.
Various food samples.
My daughter sampling a hamburger.
Our hamburgers from the Brown Bag were very tasty. On the right is a grilled burger, topped with bacon, on a glazed doughnut that was spread with peanut butter.
On the left is a grilled burger topped with sautéed mushrooms, onions, cheese and A-1 steak sauce.
Here is a photo of a grilled hot dog smothered in macaroni and cheese.
Pies on Wheels makes their pizza dough in advance in two sizes. They freeze it and bring it frozen on their truck. They defrost the dough on site and add the toppings just before grilling the pizza in a wood fired oven.
One of the pizzas we tried was Greens on White Pizza. On the dough they put ricotta cheese, grated mozzarella, roasted garlic and pesto sauce. The pizza was grilled and then arugula was put on top. Note: It was so busy, they ran out of arugula. It was still delicious.
We also tried a White Bacon Pizza that had ricotta, mozzarella, roasted garlic and crisp bacon on top of the crust. Yum!
Food and Wine Magazine has compiled a list of street vendors in an article entitled the “World’s Best Cities for Street Food.” Check it out and see if one of the cities you will be visiting is included.
Enjoy!!
